Food: Packing a Lunch for a Loved One

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Packing a Lunch for a Loved One
Monday, March 27, 2006

Most of us have been there; somewhere in our past, someone lovingly prepared a sack lunch for us. Perhaps we trotted off to school each morning with a brown paper bag full of edible lunchtime goodies, with our name scribbled across the front of the bag with a black magic marker. Or maybe we were one of the lucky ones who had a metal lunch box with the Brady Bunch or the New Zoo Review colorfully decorating the sides. Plastic lunch boxes have been on the scene for quite some time now, but my take-lunch-to-school days were over before I was lucky enough to own one. I had one of the metal boxes with the plastic thermos that always, somehow, smelled funny to me. Either way, I remember each day finding a boring bologna sandwich safely wrapped in a plastic sandwich bag (this was before zip-loc) along with some potato chips or Fritos, a couple of cookies, and maybe a fruit roll or an apple. To finish off the product, my mom always wrote a little note on the napkin. Sometimes it said "hi" or "I love you" or "study hard." It was nice to find a little secret note from my mom in the middle of the busy school day.

Now that I have children of my own, some of whom are past the age of taking a sack lunch or lunch box to school, I find that I really missed out on packing their lunches. You see, we have home schooled our children, so if I ever had to pack their lunch, I packed mine as well - and I put them all into a large picnic basket. We took our packed lunches to the beach, the local park, the bench outside the museum, or wherever our home schooling excursions took us on a given day. I do remember the rare occasions when my children accompanied another home schooling family on an excursion without me, and I relished the opportunity to pack a lunch for them, complete with a loving note from me. Nowadays, I pack my husband's lunch for work. He works at a shipyard and although there is a Subway and a McDonalds nearby, we trying to stay true to our budget, so he goes off to work each morning with a new-fangled plastic, padded lunchbox. No more rusty latches; today the lunch boxes have zippers and shoulder straps.

Yet the types of lunch carrying containers are not the only difference in the packed lunch of today versus yesteryear. Today there are a plethora of foods on the market that can be bought pre-packaged. In fact, rare is the type of food that cannot be bought pre-packaged. Pre-packaged foods are slightly more expensive, unless they are found at one of the large warehouse stores in bulk; but they make preparing a sack lunch much easier. Since many workplaces and schools now have the use of a microwave oven, lunches can be packed with one-serving soups, stews, or pasta dishes, complete with the cup in which to microwave it. Plastic forks and spoons add to the ease of this. Also convenient are the pre-packaged one-serving bags of chips (of all varieties), the packages of just one or two cookies, the pre-packaged (and unrefrigerated) cups of jello and pudding, string cheese, cheese and crackers, yogurt, and much, much more. Perhaps one of the easiest things to do for your loved one is to buy one of the entire pre-packaged lunches, such as Lunchables. These tasty treats began as just packages of ham and cheese, a few crackers, mustard, and perhaps a cookie. Now they can be found in countless varieties with raw vegetables and dip, pizza, and all types of cookies and candies for dessert.

Whichever type of lunch you choose to make for your husband or children, whether home made goodies from scratch, pre-packaged food put together in a lunch box or bag, or an entire pre-packaged lunch, never forget the most important thing of all: pack the lunch with love. Imagine your loved one opening the box and finding all the surprises and goodies you put inside. Think of their nutrition, their comfort, and their well-being; and don't forget to put a note on the napkin!

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